News #187: Ho Chi Minh City construction update

Unofficial HCMC Metro website, pan-Borneo railway, Philippines gets new railway funding offers, Japan pledges support for Vietnam HSR

Hello from Chiang Mai. This week I published the 5th annual Ho Chi Minh City construction report. It was in HCMC where I began to take an interest in urban development in Southeast Asia, which lead to starting this site.

It was in HCMC where I also found an interest in urban rail transit while waiting for the metro to open. I have probably bookmarked every single news article about the metro, so the next logical step has been to make a website about it (link below).

I have a visa run coming up next week, and I should have two more construction reports for 2023.

Latest posts at Future Southeast Asia

Ho Chi Minh City construction update – 2023 edition

This is the 5th annual Ho Chi Minh City construction update at Future Southeast Asia.

Upgrade your subscription and help support this site.

New site: hochiminhcitymetro . com

I started a new website about the HCMC Metro at hochiminhcitymetro.com. The metro is supposedly opening in July 2024, so I figured I would make a guide. that will be ready when it opens.

Without any metro lines running, I wondered what the site would look like if every proposed line was running, so I added all the future lines on the navigation bar.

I will put news updates on the Facebook page.

News

🇰🇭 Cambodia

• Angkor international airport set for Nov 16 official inauguration

• PM urges provincial administrations to focus on building roads not parks

• PM asks the company to build the Phnom Penh-Bavet expressway in accordance with technical standards and complete within deadline

🇮🇩 Indonesia

• 'Whoosh, yes!': Lessons from Indonesia’s Jakarta-Bandung high-speed rail as country mulls its next fast train

• Concerns over China-backed high-speed railway do not derail Indonesia’s agency

• Greater Jakarta LRT problems won’t be solved until late November

• Indonesia's quest for developed country status faces economic hurdles

• Việt Nam’s EV maker VinFast to invest $1.2 billion in Indonesia

• Indonesia’s president pushes US on what happened to the $31b

• Jokowi attends groundbreaking ceremony of Bank Indonesia office building in IKN

• Rempang residents continue to resist national strategic project

🇱🇦 Laos

• Bokeo International Airport to start operations by end of 2023

• Vientiane residents call for immediate action on garbage pileup

• Visiting the Thanaleng Dry Port: Mongolian business executives seek opportunities 

• Bridge in Savannakhet collapses under 42-ton truck

• Boten: How China’s investment transformed this Laotian town

🇲🇾 Malaysia

• MYHSR Corp extends deadline submission for KL-SG HSR RFI concept proposals to Jan 15, 2024

• Govt to study feasibility of building pan-Borneo railway, says Transport Minister

🇲🇲 Myanmar

• Govt designated entity consortium to be established to implement Kyaukphyu deep-sea port project

🇵🇭 Philippines

• PHL seeks $6.53B in loans from ADB for 15 projects

• Philippines says Japan, South Korea, India offer to fund railway projects

• DOTr chief: Railway projects vital in fixing NCR gridlock

• Another Turkish firm eyes to bid for NAIA rehab project

• 10 years after Typhoon Haiyan, Philippines’ Tacloban city rises from the ruins

🇸🇬 Singapore

• LTA unveils high-speed test site for MRT trains, on track to complete Southeast Asia’s first rail testing facility

• SBS Transit marks 50 years, will open new bus driver training centre, collaboration hub

• Zaha Hadid's Science Center breaks ground in Singapore

🇹🇭 Thailand

• Rail plan sped up to meet deadline

“Govt eyes 2027 finish for dual-track system.”

• As Phuket tourism market recovers, potential infrastructure crisis looms

• A closer look at Thailand’s THB1trn Land Bridge for global trade

"The plan to build a “Land Bridge” from the Gulf of Thailand to the Andaman Sea as a route for international trade was given the green light on October 16."

• Anti-land bridge banners emerge in Phato district of Chumphon province

• Call for Ayutthaya logistics hub

• Ratchaprarop intersection in Bangkok closed due to subsidence

🇻🇳 Vietnam

• Construction of North-South high-speed rail route to begin by 2030

• Japan pledges support for multi-billion-dollar high-speed rail project

• Can Vietnam reach its offshore wind power goals?

• Hanoi to build five bridges to develop urban areas along Hong River

• Long Biên to become new city centre on the riverbank

• Viet Nam’s Mekong Delta is running out of sand. What’s next?

• Province wants preferential loan to remove Da Lat greenhouses

• Work on urban project stopped for encroaching on Ha Long Bay

“An urban project in Ha Long Bay that encroaches on a protected area has been put on hold for some environmental issues to be resolved.”

• $450mn Cocobay Da Nang tourism, entertainment complex abandoned